Democrat concedes Calif. Senate special election

SACRAMENTO, Calif. 
Former Democratic Assemblyman John Laird said Wednesday he had conceded the special election to fill a highly coveted California state Senate vacancy.

Laird, of Santa Cruz, said he called Republican Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee about midnight Tuesday to congratulate him. Blakeslee, of San Luis Obispo, will represent the Central Coast's 15th Senate District, the seat formerly held by Republican Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado.

Democrats hoped to use the seat to inch closer to the two-thirds majority they need in the Senate to approve budgets and tax increases. With Blakeslee's victory, they remain two votes shy of that supermajority.

The buzz surrounding the race was considerable, with President Barack Obama coming out in support of Laird and Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman campaigning for Blakeslee. Each candidate raised about $1 million and was aided by independent groups that also spent big.

The district covers all or part of five counties. Laird, who served in the Assembly until he was termed out in 2008, carried Santa Cruz and Monterey counties by wide margins, but essentially fought to a draw with Blakeslee in Santa Clara County, which has the second highest number of voters.

Blakeslee won overwhelming in San Luis Obispo County, which has the most voters, and carried the portion of the district that stretches into northern Santa Barbara County.

Laird blamed his loss on the low turnout that typically characterizes summer special elections.

"The August election date was clearly too high a hurdle" he said in a telephone interview. "But I'm proud of the campaign we ran, and we held him under 50 percent."

In unofficial returns, Blakeslee won with 48.8 percent of the vote to Laird's 44.1 percent. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 41 percent to 34 percent in the district, but voters have elected Republicans to represent them since 1996.

Laird disputed some Republicans' claims that the Obama endorsement may have worked against him. He said he used Obama's name in mailers distributed to certain parts of District 15 - the same areas he ended up winning.

Blakeslee will be sworn in by the Senate as soon as he formally resigns from the Assembly, said Alicia Trost, a spokeswoman for Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento.

Blakeslee's staff was in the process of finding out what the assemblyman must do administratively to make the transition happen, said Christine Robertson, Blakeslee's chief of staff. She expected the shift to take place sometime in the next couple of weeks.

It's unclear what effect Blakeslee's timing might have on the stalled negotiations to close California's $19 billion budget deficit. The state remains without a spending plan nearly two months past the start of its fiscal year.

Without Blakeslee, Democrats in the 40-member Senate need agreement from two Republicans to reach the two-thirds threshold to pass a budget.

Democrats hold 50 seats in the 80-member Assembly, leaving them four votes shy of the two-thirds mark, although one of those is independent lawmaker Juan Arambula of Fresno, who typically sides with Democrats.